Residential Real Estate; 'Green' Tower at Battery Park City

By RACHELLE GARBARINE

Published: November 3, 2000

While it will be the 22nd residential tower in Manhattan's Battery Park City, the 266-unit rental scheduled to rise there next will be the first designed as a so-called green building: one that is energy efficient, environmentally sensitive and healthier for tenants.

The Albanese Development Corporation of Garden City, N.Y., is developing the 27-story structure, estimated to cost $110 million, to meet environmental and design guidelines set by the Battery Park City Authority. The building, billed as the nation's first green residential high-rise, will be at Terrace and Murray Streets, overlooking the Hudson River.

It will feature such advanced engineering technologies as a central heating and cooling system fueled by natural gas to increase energy efficiency. The system also includes a fresh-air heating, cooling, filtering and humidifying system that will serve all apartments. And to conserve water, it will have a water recycling plant in the basement to treat waste water from showers, sinks and washing machines and reuse it for irrigating plants and flushing toilets.

Each of the one- to three-bedroom units, averaging 750 to 1,500 square feet, will have its own temperature controls. Each will also be equipped with energy-efficient appliances, including washers and dryers. And the developer will limit the project's impact on the environment by using materials that, among other things, have recycled contents and reduced toxicity.

Outside, Cesar Pelli & Associates has designed the building's glass and masonry facade with photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into electricity. The panels will be arranged mainly in a vertical pattern -- and in some places used instead of brick -- over the main entrance to the building to supply 5 percent of the building's electrical load. The roof will also be covered with lightweight soil and plantings, creating a parklike setting that will provide added insulation value to the roof.

In addition to the project's environmental features, planned amenities include a health club, children's playroom and garage parking. All of the apartments, designed by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman Efron, will have floor-to-ceiling windows in the living rooms to maximize light and views. A third of them will be three-bedroom units, which are in short supply and high demand in the downtown rental market, said Russell C. Albanese, president of the development company. He said construction would start in the first quarter of 2001, with completion 18 months later.

The Battery Park City Authority recently issued requests for proposals to develop two more green buildings on North End Avenue between Murray and Warren Streets, near the Albanese development in what the authority calls the north neighborhood.

Those buildings, which could hold 250 apartments each, will continue development in that neighborhood, which began in 1995 and has since filled with five residential buildings, totaling some 1,440 rental units, more than 200 of them for the elderly.

Four more residential and two commercial buildings that will complete the development of Battery Park City will also be green, said James F. Gill, chairman of the authority. ''With this project,'' Mr. Gill said, referring to the Albanese rental, ''we are trying to demonstrate that developers can build buildings that are advanced environmentally and from a health point of view and still turn a profit.''

The Albanese building will be the first to be built under New York State's $25 million environmental tax credit program, which is intended to encourage the construction and rehabilitation of environmentally friendly buildings. Under the program, which was signed into law in May and will become effective in January, property owners can apply for tax credits to offset the cost of designing buildings with higher energy efficiency and lower impact on the environment.

Mr. Albanese said his company got involved with the project ''because it was a great opportunity and the economics make sense.'' He estimated that adding the environmental features to the building would account for 12 to 15 percent of the $110 million construction cost. But, he added, his company is confident it will recoup much of the cost in the long term through lower operating costs.

And though monthly rents have not been set, Mr. Albanese said that given the building's riverside location, larger units and amenities, it not only ''will achieve top rental rates, but push the market upward.''

Douglas Wagner, president of Benjamin James Associates, a residential brokerage company in Manhattan, said average annual rents at buildings in and around Battery Park City were $44.35 a square foot. That means monthly rents would be $4,435 for a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom apartment and $5,543 for a three-bedroom unit with 1,500 square feet.

Photo: A rendering of an environmentally sensitive high-rise rental building planned at Battery Park City.